Having a variety of microphone preamps in your recording studio is like a painter having multiple colors on his pallet. Each microphone preamp has a different characteristic, and the same preamp might not work for every song you are working on. One day, your BAE 1073 might sound amazing on the vocal, where the next day it’s not quite fitting the vibe of the track. Switching to a tube style preamp such as the UA 610 might be just what you are looking for.

Having a variety of mic preamps is the best way to be prepared for any style of music that may come to your studio. With so many options available today, you aren’t limited to the built in preamps of your console, you can mix and match tube and solid state preamps until your heart's content.

Mic preamps usually consist solely of the preamp circuit from a channel strip, ranging from one channel, four channels, and beyond. To keep the prices down, they often don’t offer any sort of EQ or compression, just the natural sound of the preamp. In most cases, this is absolutely fine, you don’t always need to EQ or compress something, if the source sounds good, it sounds good. Trying different mic pres on the same source is almost a way of trying different EQ settings, since they all have their own special characteristics, they will all have a slightly different vibe when blended into the mix.

Get with your Vintage King sales engineer to find what right type of mic preamps are the best fit for your studio.